The Writer's Guide to House of Anubis Fanfiction
by Deminny
Summary: Do you want to write, or do you already write, House of Anubis fanfiction? Do you get reviews that your characters are Mary-Sues? Are you having trouble writing good fics in general? This guide will help you turn from noob to pro! May contain spoilers.
1. House of Basic Knowledge

The Writer's Guide to House of Anubis Fanfiction

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><p>Hello! If you just clicked that link, you want to know the do's and don'ts of writing House of Anubis fanfiction. You've come to the right place! In this guide, I'll show you what to do when writing slash, OCxCanon, and more!<p>

In this first chapter, I am going to detail things every fanfiction writer should know. If you don't just write HoA fics, you can use this chapter for reference. Let's begin!

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><p><strong>1. Disclaimers<strong>

What would you say if I told you you didn't need to disclaim your HoA fanfiction? Or, for that matter, fanfiction in general? That's right, folks! Unless you're selling your fanfic in any way, shape, or form, you don't need to disclaim your fic. The wonderful people at have things taken care of. Even if you do feel the need to state that you don't own HoA, please don't do anything like the following:

Fabian: Do I have to do this?

Me: Yes! Yes you do!

Fabian: Fine. Deminny doesn't own HoA.

What's wrong with that, you may ask? It's annoying. We'll cover more self-insertion in later chapters.

**2. Spelling and Grammar**

Okay, seriously. Is it so hard to press the shift (or, if you're me, caps lock) key? Capital letters at the start of sentences and proper nouns is how you're supposed to write. so don't write like this. Write with capital letters!

Now we're going to cover run-on sentences. Please, please, PLEASE use semicolons. It's the button for regular colons without pressing shift. So instead of this:

Mick smiled he really liked Mara.

Or this:

Mick smiled, he really liked Mara.

Do this:

Mick smiled; he really liked Mara.

Or even this:

Mick smiled. He really liked Mara.

See? Is it that hard to put in one or two extra characters? Nope! Chuck Testa!

Thirdly, we're going to cover spelling. Please spell correctly. Most computers have a built-in spell-check device that will appear whenever you make a mistake. Don't ignore it. Please. It's important.

**3. Terms you _need _to know**

**There's going to be a lot of these.  
><strong>

Mary-Sue: A character portrayed in an over-idealized way. We'll go over these more later, as well as the little know but absurdly common Relationship Sue. Note that all Mary-Sues are OCs. See Canon Sue.

My Immortal: The single worst fanficton. EVER. If your fanfiction gets compared to this, please start over. Thanks.

A/N: Author's note. Please, please, please don't put this at the beginning or with little notes in the middle of the story. Put it at the end if you have to put one at all.

Yaoi: Also known as slash. The pairing between two male characters, and not just friendship.

Yuri: The female equivalent of yaoi, also known as femmeslash.

Flame: A negative review often meant to stir up a response. Often, constructive criticism reviews are mistaken for these.

Fluff: This fic has no negativity. It's simply happiness.

AU: Alternate Universe. If a fic is AU, it doesn't take relationships, plot elements, or anything of the sort in to account. It has many sub genres. For example, a HS!AU is an AU fic set in a high school.

!: ! is used to denote a change in a character. For example, Vampire!Fabian would be a vampire version of Fabian, Evil!Patricia would be an evil Patricia, etc

Badfic: This story is absolutely horrible, but it's written that way on purpose. It has bad grammar, Mary-Sue characters, and even more things to make it utterly horrible. Often, these are written as a parody.

Lemon: A fic containing explicit sexual content. These aren't technically aloud, but that doesn't mean they aren't plentiful.

Canon: This is something real that happens in a work. Mara and Mick kissing during training, the cup being underneath the stage-that's all canon.

Character Death: Exactly what it says on the tin: a major or minor character dies. Not an OC. List this in warnings, please.

Songfic: A fic based on a song. Lots of these are very emo; just an observation.

Troll: Someone online who wants to annoy you. They want to get a rise out of you. Don't feed them; that is to say, if you get a troll review, don't react to it. Otherwise, the troll wins.

Trollfic: See badfic. It's debatable whether My Immortal is this or not.

OC: Original character. NOT to be confused with OOC. Make sure yours isn't a Mary-Sue, if you have one.

OOC: Out of character. If Mara's not smart- If Mick's not athletic- If Nina isn't Mary Sue- they're OOC.

Canon Sue: A character in the original work that qualifies as a Mary-Sue. Nina is this.

OTP: One True Pairing. Your preferred pairing in a work. Fabina seems to be this to a lot of people.

Oneshot: This will only have one chapter. A twoshot will have two chapters; a threeshot will have three. Anything else is just a normal fic.

POV: Point of view. Nina POV would be 1st person from Nina's point of view; Eddie POV would be 1st person from Eddie's point of view, etc.

Ship: Noun: A romantic relation ship between two characters. Verb: To support said relationship.

Shipper: Someone who ships. See above.

Ship Tease: HoA is full of this! The teasing and hints of a relationship that hasn't happened yet, necessarily.

Spoiler: To the untrained viewer, a spolier may be new info. Put this in the description, please.

Trope: A concept that the audience of absolutely anything will recognize. TvTropes acts as a wiki for these.

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><p><strong>Deminny's Super-Special Notes!<strong>

This guide was originally supposed to be for Big Time Rush fanfiction, but House of Anubis needs it way more. Trust me. That being said, don't flame me. I'm just trying to help, not hurt.


	2. House of Mary Sues

The Writer's Guide to House of Anubis Fanfiction

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><p>Hello! If you just clicked that link, you want to know the do's and don'ts of writing House of Anubis fanfiction. You've come to the right place! In this guide, I'll show you what to do when writing slash, OCxCanon, and more!<p>

In chapter two of this guide, we'll cover a problem every fandom has...Mary-Sues! HoA seems to have this problem a lot. We'll cover Relationship Sues as well. As such, here's a guide on how to Mary-Sue!

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><p><em>There's a new girl in Anubis house. She has long, flowing onyx hair, big, beautiful, shiny emerald eyes, a perfect curvaceous body, and she's gorgeous even in her school uniform. She's more athletic than Mick; smarter than Mara; a better prankster than Alfie and Jerome combined; more rebellious than Patricia (though she never gets in trouble);richer and more gorgeous than Amber; and Nina? Guess what, she's the chosen one! Her name is Isabella Hermione Wonderful Princess Mary-Sue Lovely Myknzie Osiris. She's a vampire, too, by the way, and a wizard and a demigod. She gets together with Jerome because he's a sensitive bad boy.<br>_

What, my friends, is wrong with this picture? You've just encountered the _Mary Sue. _This species is absurdly common among all fanfiction. She's pretty, perfect, and better than all the canonical characters combined.

But what _is _a Mary-Sue, you ask? Well that's easy to define. A Mary-Sue is a character portrayed in an over-idealized way. In terms for normal people? Well, see above.

There are many kinds of Mary-Sues. We'll cover them now. The above is a general Mary-Sue; the below has all of her qualities, but something makes them different.

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><p><em>Black Hole Sue: Everything is about Me!<em>

Even Victor steps down once BHS snaps at her. Fabian is already head over heels in love with her, and will even cheat on Nina with her. The Society decides to become good after BHS talks with their leader. The whole world bends to this Sue's Will.

This sue draws in the attention of everyone, everything, even reality itself. She exists in every scene and is obviously the leader. Most people who oppose her are already dead; that, or they now love her as much as everyone else.

Everyone loves the Black Hole Sue, because BHS wants everyone to love her.

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><p><em>Purity Sue: See above, the first example, please.<em>

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><p><em>Jerk Sue: I'm an overwhelming witch with constant PMS. Love me anyway!<em>

JS is a Mary-Sue, but she takes it in a different way. Less perfect beings _annoy _JS. Everyone falling in love with her constantly? Such a _pain! _When people don't realize that she's the one and only chosen one that everyone loves? _God, _get a grip, will you? And don't you _dare _expect her to confirm to your expectations.

Jerk Sue might be very mean, but everyone loves her anyways. The other characters tolerate her antics because they love her too much. And _nobody _opposes her, be it out of love or for fear.

Jerk Sue is, well, a jerk. But everyone loves her because she's just so perfect.

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><p><em>Copy Cat Sue: I'm just like my favorite character, but better!<em>

Nina's parents are dead, right? CCS' parents died in front of her very own eyes! Nina has a locket that opens doors mystically, right? CCS' locket is not only absolutely gorgeous, but it also is more powerful than Nina's. Nina is the chosen one, right? WRONG! CCS' is really the chosen one! She's also Fabian's perfect match, by the way.

Copy Cat Sue is better than Nina. She's Nina's perfected clone. Everyone loves her more than they love Nina; of course, this means that the bad guys hate her even more.

Copy Cat Sue is just like the author's favorite character, but better.

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><p><em>Angst Sue: I'm emo and hate myself, but everyone loves me anyway!<em>

AS is emo. She's a vampire and a Slytherin. She wears sexy, all-black clothing that technically breaks the dress code, but nobody cares. She's never known her parents and has been abused in some way, be it sexually or mentally. She hates herself. But everyone loves her.

Angst Sue hates life and herself, but everyone tries to convince her of he perfection-she is perfect, you know. The only people who hate her are jealous.

Angst Sue hates herself, but that just makes her _more _perfect.

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><p>Nauseating, wasn't that? What happens next will be even worse. All the characters on this show are at least a little desirable. These exist in every fandom and are very common, but also easily remedied.<p>

What _is _a relationship sue, though? Simple as heck. A relationship sue is a Mary-Sue designed to be the perfect match for a canon character. An RS for Fabian would be even word-nerdier than he is. One for Jerome would be a super-prankster; she'd be even better than Fred and George. One for Patricia would be super rebellious; one for Amber would fit her three rules and more. You get the idea. The revers of a relationship sue would be a pairing like Mick and Mara, but even _more _opposite somehow. Either way, she's perfect.

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><p>Preventing creating a Mary Sue is easy. I have one word that will encompass it: <em>flaws. <em>A Mary-Sue is so bad that she's perfect, right? Exactly! All you have to do is add flaws-impatience, mean-spiritedness, just being a general lazy bum-and your Mary-Sue is a normal character again. Every well-developed character should have flaws. Amber's honestly a snob; Mara can go in to crazy-jealous Mara mode just like that; Alfie and Jerome both seem to love money a lot. You can do the exact same with your character.

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><p>The question is, how do you know if you've made a Mary-Sue? The internet has a wonderful thing called a Mary Sue Litmus test that will help you. I reccomend the one on ; it's a universally good test. A simpler test can be found by googling "The Writer's Mary Sue Test". Each one has questions such as:<p>

Is your character described, illustrated, and/or shown as exceptionally beautiful, cute, or handsome?

Is your character _the_ best or among the best at anything she does?

Does your character share tastes or a hobby with a canon character?

Does your character know something that only a canon character should know?

Does your character end up saving the day and/or the life of another character?

How many major characters fall for your character?

Does your character become the boyfriend/girlfriend of a canon character?

Does your character single-handedly accomplish what no-one has been able to do so far?

Each one also has questions that subtract from the final score.

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><p>As this chapter closes, another one opens. Next chapter we'll cover OCxCanon and how to avoid making Relationship Sues in a little more depth than we did this chapter. Enjoy!<p>

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><p><strong>Deminny's Super-Special Notes!<strong>

I know I just published this fic, but I'm sort of on a roll here. Thank you all for the reviews-especially you, no name. You demonstrated the "Flame" term perfectly.

I'm watching more HoA right now. It's pretty addicting, if I do say so myself.

See you whenever I write again~


	3. House of Original Characters

**The Writer's Guide to House of Anubis Fanfiction**

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><p>Hello! If you just clicked that link, you want to know the do's and don'ts of writing House of Anubis fanfiction. You've come to the right place! In this guide, I'll show you what to do when writing slash, OCxCanon, and more!<p>

This chapter covers OCxCanon. We'll show you how to and how not to do this, as well as touch on OC making in general. We'll teach you how to avoid the Relationship Sue as well. So let's begin!

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><p>This chapter will begin with a spot-the-difference for my personal favorite HoA character, Jerome. Let's begin, shall we?<p>

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><p>Miranda Smith is Jerome's girlfriend. They're not exactly alike, not exactly different. They were friends first before getting in to a relationship. Miranda is in to pranking and scams, but she's also a pretty big chicken. Miranda is not a Relationship Sue.<p>

In an AU, Miranda Miyako Leanne Lovely Myknzie Smith is Jerome's girlfriend. She's a better prankster than him with an even more tragic past. They weren't friends before they started dating; rather, it was an intense love at first sight. As I said, Miranda's a way better prankster than him. Miranda is a Relationship Sue.

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><p>Do you see the difference? Not only is AU!Miranda a Mary Sue, she's a Relationship Sue tailor-made to be in a relationship with Jerome. Any other character could easily also have an RS. Mara's would be super-intelligent; Mick's would be utterly athletic; etc. Even the manliest man or the girliest girl character EVER could have a relationship sue. It doesn't have to make sense. It's (mostly) all about wish fulfillment.<p>

That being said, it's extremely easy _not _to make a relationship sue; it's simply hard to tell if you've made one. Here's a quick test to see if your character is a relationship sue.

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><p>Take the Writer's Mary Sue Test. Write down your character's score.<p>

Add ten points if your character falls in love at first sight with the canon character. Add yet another ten if the canon character falls in love with her at first sight.

Add five if said Canon character is already in a relationship before your character came along.

Add five more if Canon's ex is portrayed as an absolute jealous witch.

Add five _more _if Canon's ex is usually a well liked character.

Add ten if your character is sought after by another character.

Add ten if your character has the exact same personality, no matter how girly or manly, as the canon character.

The maximum score you can get on this mini-quiz plus the writer's test is 293. The closer your score is to that number, the worse your relationship sue will be.

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><p>Now, depending on how high you scored on this quiz, you may need to know how to fix your relationship sue. If not, go ahead and go on to the next section, which is on OC making in general.<p>

How would one fix a relationship sue? It's a mystical concoction. Add _flaws, _or the cure for Mary-Suedom, and add _differences. _Differences are very important. Most couples, in real life, are some alike and some different. Now, I'm not saying you should make the characters exact opposites, though that would be pretty cool if you did and managed to pull that off. What I'm saying is that they should have similarities and differences, rather than being exactly alike. Add differences! Take Mick and Mara. They're pretty different, but they have similarities as well. They're the athlete and the mathlete, yes, but Mara comes from a sporty background, and that's part of what brings them together.

So if your OC is matched with Mara, don't make him super-smart. Instead, make him a the type of character who slacks since he doesn't need to study, or a master-of-the-arts type character. Similar enough to be attracted, and yet different enough so it's not boring.

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><p>To have a Relationship Sue, you need an OC. But the question is, how do you make one? You'll find lots of long-winded guides online about how, but here's a quicker, simple guide.<p>

**1. Name**

Names are one of those things you take for granted, but names make characters more than you may think. Do you choose a name because it sounds smart or mysterious? Do you choose it because it has a nice meaning (i.e. the name Jerome means "Sacred Name")? Do you choose it because it sounds/is Japanese? (That's a sign of Mary-Suedom, by the way.) Either way, your name is a big part of your character. Stick to your character's name and what it makes you think of.

A good website to find names is Behind the Name, which has meaning and origin as well as a random name generator.

**2. Looks**

Looks are also a big part of creating an OC, but also one of the most dangerous. Not a lot of people on earth are excruciatingly beautiful, nor are they so ugly it hurts to look at them. Go for somewhere in the middle. Red hair is the least common hair color in the world; brown hair is the most common. As far as eye color goes, brown is the most common and green is the least. So a normal character would have brown hair and eyes. That seems boring, right? Don't worry. Just try not to give your character flowing green hair and shining violet eyes or anything.

**3. Personality**

Ah, yes, personality! Personality is one of the hardest parts of creating an OC. Is he hot-heated or cool and collected? Is he good or evil? Is he a genius or utterly stupid? Think of the words that describe your character and write them down. Circle the ones you want and BAM! Personality happens!

Deviantart user Yumiko12345 has amazing OC templates for you to use. When in doubt, fill one up and see what comes to mind!

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><p><strong>Deminny's Super-Special Notes!<br>**

**Hello all! Thank you for the fantastic reviews!**

**I'm seeing an increase of good quality HoA fanfics. Good job, everyone! **

**And also, a PSA from I Don't Hate Joy International: Stop Hating on Joy! Thank you and goodnight!**

**P.S. I can't think of anything for the next chapter! Any ideas? Please let me know!**


	4. House of Update

Hey, everyone. This isn't an update; this is an announcement.

I love House of Anubis. I still do. But my older brother has left.

My older brother, Alex, is the one I watch House of Anubis with, and the inspiration for this fic/guide dealio. The problem is, he left for basic military training in Fort Benning, Georgia, this February. I miss him a ton, and the emotional stress from that is making it really, really hard for me to continue this fic.

**This fic is not dead**. It's on hiatus for a while, sure, but it is _not _dead and it never will be. I'm going to update this eventually, but the strain on my life right now is causing me to put it on hiatus.

Thanks for your cooperation and support. You know I love you guys, right?

If you want to contact me - lollikeabuffalo on tumblr is the place.

Thank you guys so much.

~Deminny


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